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Yahoo
10-08-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Kate Forbes' resignation is a cautionary tale for all employers
The resignation of Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes this week caused politicians of all persuasions to talk of a 'loss' for Scottish politics. Whether or not you agree with her approach, Forbes is undoubtedly a gifted and successful politician. And she's announced her intention to leave because her job and family life are incompatible. While there are specific questions over how Holyrood ensures diversity among the people making decisions about how we live, this is also a cautionary tale for all employers. READ MORE: 235-room hotel plan for Bothwell Street listed building READ MORE: Sarens PSG secures Caley Thistle stadium naming rights It's a reminder that talented employees will leave if their job is too big, or too inflexible, to manage alongside home responsibilities. And it's a reminder that it's usually more diverse groups who are the first to go - people with childcare needs (despite progress, that's still mostly mothers), people with other caring responsibilities or health conditions and disabilities. Inclusive workplaces with diverse workforces are proven to perform better than those where everyone 'thinks the same'. Creating human-sized jobs that can flex round needs and responsibilities outside of work is an essential part of that. Demand for flex among parents In her resignation announcement, Forbes said she didn't want to 'miss any more precious years of family life'. So many parents will empathise with that. Add in that childcare is often hard to find and/or expensive and there are many good reasons parents want and need to work flexibly around their children. Our research with more than 800 working parents in Scotland shows three quarters use some kind of flexibility in their role; significantly higher than the Scottish national average of 67%. Of the 24% of parents who don't currently work flexibly, 63% would like to, meaning the very vast majority of Scottish working parents either already work flexibly or would like to. Impact on ability to work Nearly one in five parents who work flexibly told us they'd have no choice but to stop working completely if their flex was no longer available. Some groups feel the impact more. The figure for mothers is 23%. That's almost one in four mothers who work flexibly potentially dropping out of work if the flexible-working-glue holding work and home life together is taken away. The figure is higher for lone parents at 26%, and higher still for parents in poverty (30%). It's highest for parents earning the least (less than £20,000 a year), and parents who live in a household where someone has a disability or long-term health condition; both at 31%. Why creating more flex is worth it Creating more flexible working opportunities can help many people, not just parents, manage their work alongside personal needs and responsibilities. Many people only want small amounts of flexibility, such as to work from home occasionally, or to start and finish a little earlier or later in the day. It doesn't have to mean huge changes for employers. Flexible working unlocks significant business benefits too. Our research with Scottish employers shows three quarters think flexible working helps them retain good staff, 59% say offering flex has improved the quality and quantity of candidates applying for roles, 69% say greater flexible working has reduced sickness and absence rates and 64% say flex has helped them have a more diverse workforce. Offering flexible working isn't just about being 'nice' to staff; it makes business sense too. Getting personal Forbes' experience reminds me of why my co-director Lisa Gallagher and I founded Flexibility Works. We are both working mothers (with six boys between us). We both wanted part time arrangements to manage big jobs we loved and the demands of being a parent. Neither of us got what we wanted. It was full-time or bust. We know first-hand how much talent is leaving the workforce because of a lack of flexibility. And we believe that greater flexible working is a win-win for people and employers. Holyrood's problems As an employer, Holyrood has unique challenges in how to attract and retain talented politicians that reflect our nation. There should be parents, carers, people from minority ethnic backgrounds, or with disabilities to represent us all when decisions are made in how our country is run. Forbes' resignation is a reminder of what happens if we simply shrug and say 'that's just how it is'. Smart employers are changing how people work. So should Holyrood. Nikki Slowey is the co-founder and director of Flexibility Works Sign in to access your portfolio
Times
09-08-2025
- Politics
- Times
Kate Forbes: I'm standing down because I want more children
It was graphic evidence of the threats today's politicians face. As Kate Forbes, Scotland's deputy first minister, stepped down from the platform after giving a talk at the Edinburgh Fringe last week, security officials closed in and hurried her to a car before whisking her away from the crowds. Protesters against her religious views — she is opposed to abortion and same-sex marriage — had demanded the event be cancelled. It carried on regardless, but police were taking no risks. 'I never like it when things like that happen,' she sighed. 'I always think it reflects badly on me, but it's not my decision.' It is not, however, the reason Forbes has decided to quit political life at the pinnacle of her career. Last Monday, her daughter Naomi turned three, and Forbes felt she faced a choice: her duty to her family or her job. She chose family. 'I'd love some more children,' she said, 'and I haven't talked openly about that, but I decided that I couldn't have more children whilst doing this job. I would be 36 at the next election [next year]. [That parliament] runs to 41. I don't need to give you a biology lesson about what that means, and I didn't want to inflict what I inflicted on Naomi on another child.' She believes that being a mother is every bit as important as holding political office. 'I do feel like motherhood is a great thing, and there's been a lot of emphasis on proving that women can have it all,' she said. 'But what if you actually do want to be a mum, and you want to do your best work at mothering? There's a tendency in our society nowadays to say that's a failure, that you're giving up high office to do this thing that society views as small and insignificant. And I don't feel that way. I feel like it's a great thing, and I'm not doing a terribly good job of it. So I wanted to do a better job of it.' Representing her Highlands constituency, one of the largest in Britain, has meant travelling four hours from her home in Dingwall to Edinburgh and four hours back every week. The parliament has a crèche, but it is only available three hours a day (when Forbes had her baby it was only four hours a week — she got that changed, but not enough.) She relies on childminders and family friends, but the strain has finally told. 'I think it's always been impossible,' she said. 'I entered an extremely tough leadership contest [ losing to Humza Yousaf in March 2023]. Fresh from maternity leave, I then juggled a year on the back benches, which you may have thought was quieter, and that's true, but I didn't have any of the assistance that comes with ministerial office. 'So we drove up and down, with a baby in the back, and I had to do everything myself in that year. There were lots of situations I thought were just impossible, in terms of being on Zoom calls with a one-year-old and then going back into the deputy first minister role. Being so far from home, I could fill a library of books with the number of close calls and close shaves where I was seconds away from cancelling something.' Her decision to quit has stunned her supporters and the country. Forbes is regarded as a star in the SNP, one of the few in the party's ranks with a business brain and a firm grasp of economic policy. She studied history at Selwyn College, Cambridge, before going on to achieve a master's degree in diaspora and migration history from Edinburgh University. She joined the SNP in 2011, and worked as a researcher in the Scottish parliament before training to be an accountant and working for Barclays bank. Selected as a candidate for Skye, Lochaber & Badenoch, she fought the 2016 election and nearly doubled the majority of her predecessor. Nicola Sturgeon appointed her minister for public finance and, when the finance secretary quit in a sex scandal, she delivered the budget on a few hours' notice. At 35, she was seen by many as a future first minister, and her close working relationship with her boss, John Swinney, was regarded as critical to the party's prospects at next year's Holyrood elections. The conflict between loyalty to her constituents and her family responsibilities is one she feels keenly. Last March she again put her name forward for selection as a candidate 'because I felt I would be letting too many people down by not standing'. Then, over the summer, the balance shifted. 'I suddenly realised I just didn't want to do another five years of bearing the weight of everybody's expectations,' she said. 'There's no joy in juggling all of that relentlessly. And I think you've got to have joy in your job to keep doing it.' Her epiphany came in India where she and her husband, Alasdair, who has three daughters from a previous marriage, went earlier this summer. Forbes was educated between India and Scotland, returning to Dingwall Academy when she was 15. Her parents were missionaries for the Free Church of Scotland on the subcontinent, and she feels at home there. Visiting an orphanage run by the Deep Griha Society near Pune in western India, she suddenly realised what these children lacked, and what she had to give. 'I don't care what anybody says — we do not understand about absolute poverty,' she says. 'We do not understand what it feels like to be completely left and abandoned. These were slum kids from Mumbai, five or six-year-olds with ill-fitting clothes and shoes twice the size of their feet. This charity takes them into the village and gives them an education — just one couple looking after 40 or 50 kids. 'I felt what an unfair privilege my daughter has — and yet she is not getting the benefit of it. And that was that. I just loved being with my family for a week, absolutely loved it, and I was so struck by the fact you have this great privilege and you're squandering it, if that's not too strong a word.' EUAN CHERRY FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES Forbes, a member of the same church as her parents, denies that hostility to her strongly held religious views and her brand of social conservatism, which fit uneasily with the left-leaning mainstream of her party, had anything to do with her decision. At the time she stood for the leadership, supporters of Sturgeon were briefing against her, and even Swinney expressed the view that some of her convictions were incompatible with the party's policies. The relationship with Swinney, she says, is now a strong and supportive one. As for Sturgeon, she has yet to order a copy of her memoirs. 'I did not stand down when I was in the eye of the storm, because I don't back off when things are tough, when the chips are down,' she said. 'The party is still on track to win the next election. I've not seen a single poll that suggests I was going to lose my seat. I am leaving in my own way, on my own terms, for the reasons that I have set out.' She does, however, worry about the toxic atmosphere encountered by those who take on public office. 'Over the last ten years there have been a number of points where I have been fearful for my physical safety,' she admits. 'I don't talk about them. Sometimes they get reported, but I don't make a big deal about them for a whole host of reasons, not least, the more you talk about it, the more it draws awareness to other people. But it's the hatred that I just find exhausting.' She added: 'I learnt very quickly at the beginning of my political career that if you put too much store on people's views, it would be a rollercoaster — one moment being loved and the next minute being hated. And if you believe their love, you have to believe their hate.' Forbes hopes she has done enough to encourage others to come forward to take up a political life. 'I am extremely proud of the fact that I've left a legacy to support or to enable more people with my views to even think of standing — because fear characterises our politics to a great extent,' she said. 'People are fearful that if they're not on the bandwagon, they're under the wheels, and so they don't go near politics. But I get huge encouragement from people who say, 'You have given me confidence to open my mouth in a public place and express my views, my faith, my perspectives, and I would never have done that before.''
